Sunday | 7 September, 2008
CIO
The People Thing
Enhancing human performance now appears to be even more important to CEOs and CIOs than automating business processes. But are they executing?
Michael Schrage 05 November, 2007 13:55:44

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What does that mean? Professional development must now be explicitly aligned with systems development. Two weeks of training is neither synonymous with nor the sine qua non of professional development. Teaching you how to use Outlook or set up a wiki or create e-mail Listservs is not the same as you learning how to use them effectively. Not to be too cynical, but training is how IT has conveniently (and often to its detriment) "outsourced" its investment in the human capital of its users.

Indeed, many CIOs do a fantastic job of investing in and developing their own staff. They do a less than stellar - or nonexistent - job of investing in their internal clients and users. CIOs need to focus more of their attention on how to make their customers smarter and how to give their internal clients tools and training to make them smarter as well.

Not doing so is bad for two reasons: the first is the obvious one - when you underinvest in your users and customers, they are unable to get the value they need and you want from your systems investment; the second reason is the CEOs. CEOs - and even CFOs - now grasp that one cannot divorce the return on the physical or virtual asset from the return on the human asset. Whether CIOs like it or not, the systems, apps and platforms they build and procure are as much media for human capital development as they are mechanisms for global competitiveness. In reality, a portion of their global competitiveness potential is a function of how well people-as-people utilize that asset. That's professional development as human capital investment.

Every IT proposal of note should come with a human capital impact statement, not just a training budget, curriculum and schedule in the appendix. Does this pose an added burden on an already overstressed CIO? Perhaps. Does this better reflect what the CEO is now telling his direct reports, your colleagues, your company and your investors? Absolutely. It's time to coordinate your calendars so that the CEO's priorities are better embedded in your own.

Michael Schrage is co-director of the MIT Media Lab's eMarkets Initiative. He can be reached at schrage@media.mit.edu

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2008 CIO Summit

19th August, 2008 Four Seasons Hotel, Sydney Developed in partnership with CIO Magazine, IDC, INTEP and the CIO Executive Council.

The world of the CIO is extremely complex and diverse. Multiple priorities demand attention and decisions are needed instantly. Individual teams need to be driven towards common goals, and businesses strive to become more mobile, agile and responsive. For CIOs, the challenge never ends.

Every year the CIO Summit identifies what is top of mind for CIOs across Australia and New Zealand, and offers insight for CIO benchmarking and vendor strategic planning alike.

Recent IDC research shows that over 59% of CIO's believe that 'to achieve their business strategies, technology should be used more aggressively than today.'

Join us on August 19th to discover how this is possible with the latest technologies including Virtualisation, Web 2.0, IP Surveillance and Software as a Service (Saas).

Click here for registration.

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Please email Denyse_Robertson@idg.com.au for further information.

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An Analysis of the Market for Corporate Web Security Solutions, revealing Top Players, Mature Players, Specialists and Trail Blazers. Read on to discover who makes the grade.

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